Bougainville Revolutionary Army

The Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) was a secessionist army that was formed in 1988 by Francis Ona as a national liberation movement for the island of Bougainville, geographically a part of the Solomon Islands but territorially being a part of Papua New Guinea. With a strength of 2,000, the BRA fought a war with the government until 1998, and it survived the Papuan blockade by using natural oil to power their vehicles. However, 20,000 people died of starvation or disease on the island during the Bougainville Civil War, leading to a 1997 ceasefire and the 2005 declaration of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.